‘The halfway house’ - temporary housing and production facility for parolees in Pretoria West

Abstract

Considering the permanent nature of the built environment, this dissertation investigates an alternative approach towards static architecture. Allowing the building’s users the ability to alter and determine their own environments due to ever evolving social needs. This architectural approach is thereafter metaphorically condensed to formulate a programme between isolation (prison) and freedom (society), where parolees are temporarily housed and given the opportunity to implement the production skills that were developed in prison. Allowing these parolees a second chance for redemption and the opportunity to ‘give back to society’ through the production process of recyclable waste into new sustainable products. The architectural concept should be understood in various different time scales over which the building changes, thus designing for disassembly by utilising a modular and kit-of-parts approach.